When Ketzl first adopted me and allowed me to bring him home, he used to be
at the door almost every time I arrived home. I live in an apartment
building, don't drive, so I can only guess it was the elevator bell ringing
down the hall that alerted him to my imminent arrival. (I hated to think he
ran to the door every time the elevator bell rang throughout the day,
though.)

Now that he fully owns the place and feels secure, he usually stays on the
back of the sofa when I come in, but if I'm really lucky, he raises his head
to indicate he knows I've returned to serve him again. ("Oh. You. Is it
dinner time?")

X-No-Archive:

If you keep a regular schedule, your cat knows what it is. Or, it can hear your
car or you walking from some distance. I kept an irregular schedule, but my Jaws
always knew I was coming home because he could hear my car (I think).

My 2 cats know when there is a stray outside, and want to go out. I don't know
if they can hear or smell the stray cat, but they always know. Obviously the
stray cat is very quiet and seperated from by cats by a wall and I may have the
TV on. They know. It makes me wonder what my cats know about me that I don't
want them to know...cats can be very judgemental :-) !

OTOH, a few years back 60 Minutes did a segment on dogs. They just "knew" their
owner was coming home, even if their owner was coming home at a very unusual
time and when their owner was so far away that the dog could not possibly see,
hear or smell the owner and thereby know the owner was on his way. They found
this out, by video taping the dog all day. The dog prepared for the owner when
the owner started for home. The same _may_ apply to cats. Sorry to mention dogs
in this NG.